|
Referrals - Pay when necessary
Networking is as important online as offline. If a friend
recommends a particular solution or product, we are much more likely to consider
it than if we just saw an advertisement. Likewise, on the web, people find
sites that they trust, because they find useful information or interesting
material, and tend to go back regularly for more.
Such 'trusted' sites can therefore be much more valuable as a
source of referrals than the general run of sites - even if they all deal with
the same sort of information or market. Finding them, of course, is not so easy;
and persuading them to put in a hyperlink to you, means offering them something
that they want in return.
The days of random creation of reciprocal links (so-called
'link farms') have already passed. Now even exchanges of links between peers
with related sites are of dubious value. There is really only one measure
of a good link - does it bring you traffic directly? There is a weak alternative
argument that a link will of itself help your search engine ranking simply
because they prefer sites with links. This is surely not valid - at least in the
long run. Search engines like links because they see it as a 'vote' for the site
with an incoming link but it will not be long before they disregard any link a
human would not follow.
So what practical action can we take?
- List all the most important sites in your market
place. These can be ranked by PageRank, Alexa rating and number of
links. Not very precise measures but readily available.
- Make a subjective assessment of each one, starting
with the most important, for relevancy to your own market and how much
you would like to be seen there.
- Decide what you can offer them to persuade them to
put in a link
- Contact them and negotiate.
- Measure the effectiveness and be prepared to cut the
link if it does not earn its keep
In practise this may often mean going to 'Portal' sites and
paying to have a link. Portals which pull in relevant traffic for a wide variety
of information about a specific area can be of particular value to a niche
website. The niche site is always going to have an uphill struggle to persuade
search engines to rank them higher than sites with more content, more traffic
and more links. Instead of competing, turn them into partners!
Pay them, and make sure you get your money's worth.
You'll also find out quickly which are the really 'trusted' sites in your
marketplace.
Regards
Stephen Orr
|
